No Evidence Yet! As Police Probe Assassins’ Claim

The allegation publicly made recently by three individuals linking stalwarts of the ruling Unity Party (UP) of hiring them to kill the presidential candidate of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) seems to be coming to what has been considered as a conclusive ending, as investigators from the Liberian National Police are said to be finding it difficult as to the facts surrounding the allegation.

A local daily quoting the Liberian Chief of Police, Col. Gregory Coleman as saying though investigation was still ongoing and noting that if they police cannot establish a link to the allegation the possibility is there for it to be thrown out.

Col. Coleman said the state got involved because of the nature of the case which he said has security implication, adding, “The police has not found any evidence of anyone attempting to assassinate the political leader of the CDC, Senator George Weah as alleged by Moustapha Sesey, Long John and George Berry, aka “Ivorian.

The three claimed they were hired to cause chaos at the headquarters of the CDC on August 19, 2017, the day CDC officially launched its political campaign nationwide, to create the lead way for alleged Russian assassins to accomplish their plans.

The police chief said the statement given by the accusers do not corroborate, which he said makes it very difficult for the police to find any link between the accusers and the alleged plotter. He also said the statements by the three men are not corroborating.

“We are still trying to get to the bottom of it, but for now we can safely say that we’ve been able to evidence to press charges against any of them. The police has not received any complaint from the CDC which indicates the security of their Standard Bearer is in jeopardy; hence, there is no need to provide him additional protection,” Col. Coleman told reporters.

It can be recalled Three persons who last month revealed at a well-attended news conference in Monrovia that some members of the ruling Unity Party including the Minister of Defense, Brownie Samukai, and a businessman George Kailondo had hired them to assassinate the presidential candidate of opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) have been invited by authority of the Liberia National Police.

According to ‘Long John,’ he and his colleagues were hired through the instrumentality of Mr. George Kailondo, a stalwart of the UP to assassinate the CDC political leader.

He said the UP mobilization chairman for Montserrado County hired them with strict mandate to execute the plan (to allegedly kill Weah) on the day the CDC launched its political campaign for the impending 2017 elections.

“We were promised US$10,000.00 by George Kailondo for the mission. But we thought this would take away our future. Our mandate was to cause instability at the party’s headquarters which would have led to the assassination of George Weah,” he said.

During their news conference which was carried live on both radio and television at the headquarters of the CDC, many who watched and listened described the alleged assassins alleged that the men are dangerous across the country, and further urged the police to be robust in their investigation.

(Visited 132 times, 1 visits today)

Comments

Joel Cholo Brooks is a Liberian journalist who previously worked for several international news outlets including the BBC African Service. He is the CEO of the Global News Network which publishes two local weeklies, The Star and The GNN-Liberia Newspapers. He is a member of the Press Union Of Liberia (PUL) since 1986, and several other international organizations of journalists.